Cheers, tears as Calgary says no to 2026 Olympics

Crushing Defeat: At the Yes Calgary 2026 party at bar Vagabond, Calgary 2026 chair Scott Hutcheson comforts a supporter after Calgary voted against the 2026 Olympic bid on Nov. 13, 2018. The plebiscite result was 56 per cent against the bid. (Photo by Alex Hamilton/The Press)

While opponents of the bid celebrated the 56.4-per-cent majority that came in against the plan in a city plebiscite, some supporters wept at the news, while others blamed failures by senior governments and misleading reporting by some in the news media.

The plebiscite, which drew about 40 per cent of Calgarians to the polls, will now result in the shutdown of the Olympic bid process by city council, Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters after the votes were in.

“The people have spoken clearly,” said the mayor, adding that as a supporter of the bid, he was disappointed with the outcome.

Mary Moran, the chief executive officer of the group organizing the bid, admitted in an emailed statement that a lack of unified and timely financial support by the federal and provincial governments hurt the yes campaign.

“We did the best we could with what we were dealt,” said Moran.

At the no side headquarters in Hillhurst-Sunnyside, the leaders of the victorious grassroots campaign No Calgary Olympics said the timing of the bid had been a big concern for voters.

“I think that just going for the Olympics for Calgary was a bit tone-deaf,” said Jeanne Milne.

“There were certain questions and concerns about the bid, but it was actually if this was the right project at the right time, and we were hearing that over and over again.”

Daniel Gauld said that Calgarians “looked at the [Olympic] plan and decided that there’s something else the city could do.

“I think Calgarians were concerned about unemployment, about the vacancy rates downtown, and they weren’t entirely sure the Olympics were going to be the solution,” said Gauld.

“A lot of people just didn’t buy the numbers,” said Franco Terrazanno, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, a lobby group which also opposed the bid.

Milne said that No Calgary Olympics’ budget was just $1,400 in the final stretch, compared to BidCo’s $1.4-million push that included polished television and newspaper ads, and automated calls to voters in the run-up to voting day.

No Calgary Olympics concentrated their efforts on the advance vote, “before the advertising hit,” according to Milne.

One supporter of the no side suggested their financial disadvantage may have actually helped them.

William McBeath, spokesman for City Hall watchdog group Save Calgary, said that the Yes groups “painted in people’s minds this picture of big spending, big government, using their tax dollars to campaign against the upstart, grassroots no campaign.”

“I actually think it engendered a lot of sympathy for [no],” said McBeath.

“The more we talked to Calgarians, the more we realized there were many different reasons why people were voting no,” said Terrazanno.

At the Yes Calgary 2026 voting night headquarters at Vagabond in Victoria Park, the result was greeted with a mix of emotions.